8 fully vaccinated healthcare workers who attended a pool party in Vegas contracted COVID-19 with mild symptoms

• Eight fully vaccinated health workers who attended a poolside party in Las Vegas have caught COVID-19, according to a report.

• They had symptoms similar to allergies or a common cold, a hospital CEO told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

• At least seven of them caught the highly infectious variant of the Delta coronavirus, according to the report.

• See more stories on the Insider business page.

At least 11 health workers, eight of whom were fully vaccinated, tested positive for COVID-19 after attending a poolside party in Las Vegas on June 7, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, citing emails from the local health district.

At least 10 of 11 people have caught the highly infectious variant of the Delta coronavirus, according to emails from the Southern Nevada Health District obtained by the Brown Institute for Media Innovation and shared with the newspaper.

Todd Sklamberg, CEO of Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where people worked, told the Review-Journal that the source of the outbreak was “a private off-site party” on June 7.

Sklamberg said the workers had symptoms similar to allergies or the common cold and chose to get tested. They self-isolated and did not pass the virus on to anyone else, a preliminary investigation requested by the health district revealed, according to the Review-Journal report.

Eight of the 11 workers were fully vaccinated, two had received a dose of the vaccine and one was unvaccinated, the Review-Journal reported, citing the emails.

The report did not make it clear which COVID-19 vaccines the workers had received.

Stephanie Bethel, a representative for the health district, told the Review-Journal that the investigation found that COVID-19 vaccines given to health workers were properly stored and administered. No vaccine is 100% effective, and breakthrough infections were expected, she added.

Read more: Experts explain why mRNA technology that revolutionized COVID-19 vaccines could be the answer to incurable diseases, heart attacks and even snakebites: “The possibilities are endless”

The story continues

The Delta variant is now dominant in the United States, accounting for about 80% of new COVID-19 infections in Nevada.

Actual data from the UK has shown that Pfizer’s vaccine, for example, is 33% effective in preventing symptomatic illnesses caused by the Delta variant after one dose and 88% after two doses. This means that 12% of people can still be infected, but most likely with less serious illness.

It’s difficult to say how many vaccinated Americans are infected with Delta, because on May 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped monitoring most reported cases among those vaccinated, focusing on cases resulting in hospitalization. or death. CDC data reportedly failed to identify cases among Las Vegas health workers.

Severe cases of breakthrough in vaccinated people are less common than in unvaccinated people in Nevada. The chief medical officer at Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas told KTNV on Tuesday that 80% of COVID-19 patients there were unvaccinated and almost all COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit were not vaccinated.

Brian Labus, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Nevada’s School of Public Health, told the Review-Journal that getting the vaccine is like wearing a seat belt.

“Just because there is the occasional death of someone (…) wearing a seat belt in the car accident does not mean you shouldn’t wear a seat belt”, said he declared. “It will protect most people for the most part.”

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